We have to admit it; part of us is rather enjoying the spectacle Donald Trump is making of himself as he careens around the political theater pretending to be a serious candidate for the most powerful office in the world.
It is the very definition of a train wreck. You don’t want to look, but you can’t tear your eyes away. Just when you think he can’t set his bar any lower, he surprises you.
The upside is that the ongoing Trump show partially answers the age-old question of what would happen if a mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore citizen got into the race and just started shooting straight from the lip; eschewing all those big-shot campaign managers, poll-watchers, and spin doctors that are now part and parcel of professional politics these days.
At least this is what it looks like when the specific candidate in question knows little and cares to know less.
We have no doubt cooler heads will prevail in the Republican Party long before actual votes are cast next year, but until then Trump is going to be the elephant sucking air out of the room. Trump is entertaining in a disaster movie sort of way, but he is all show. There is no “there” there.
The downside is that Trump is making things harder for more serious candidates who are in the very serious business of running for president. Right now nobody in the media, and certainly no one in the general public, is paying attention to anything anybody else is doing unless they are responding to something related to Donald Trump.
That’s a problem in that now is the time to be considering a lot of candidates over a lot of issues. Later our choices will essentially be winnowed down to two, take it or leave it, but right now is the time in the process where we, the public, can best exert some influence over which two we end up with.
Closer to home, we have our own spectacle going on in Augusta as relations between the Blaine House and the State House have bottomed out this year. Like Donald Trump, Gov. LePage almost never fails to amaze. It would be more spectacle, except there are very real consequences attached to the actions of any sitting governor.
At the same time, despite the rhetoric, there are very real issues at stake.
We are not surprised, given the state of affairs, that LePage’s opponents have called for an investigation and possible impeachment. Nor are we particularly surprised that pugnacious Friendship Rep. Jeff Evangelos is in the middle of things, and we note the very real irony, in Abigail Adams’ front-page story this week, of both Evangelos and Sen. Chris Johnson expressing the desire to avoid partisan politics in this matter, even as they brief a meeting of the Lincoln County Democrats.
Such words would have been more fitting in a non-partisan forum.
Still, both men are correct: impeachment is not and should not be a political ploy. The bar for impeachment is high and rightfully so. If the governor has indeed crossed a line, that should be established by the facts, not newspaper reports or dueling press releases, and dealt with accordingly.
